CfP: Exploring Aesthetic Practices – Conference in Jyväskylä 23.10.2024.

Here is a call for papers for a conference that is not primarily directed at game philosophy, but it has game studies is a target group and the topic of playing games is mentioned.  We just visited Jyväskylä for one of our Nordic workshops in game philosophy and know that there is an interest for our type of work. We highly encourage game philosophers to submit abstracts.

Call for papers

From Kant onwards, the default position when thinking about aesthetic matters has been to start with one individual who appreciates or engages with one object, whether a work of art, an environment, or an everyday item. However, when aiming to grasp the role of aesthetic phenomena in human life, this perspective is insufficient. It overshadows how the significance of art and everyday aesthetic matters, for individuals and communities, evolve through shared histories of practice, where perceptual and creative skills arise from previous experiences and know-how.

Shifting the focus of aesthetics from objects and singular experiences to practices opens novel and fruitful perspectives on how humans form and transform their identity and lifeworld through active and long-term aesthetic engagement in various media. An aesthetic practice, we suggest, is a continuous, repeatedly performed activity of engaging with an art form, a form of popular culture, crafts, sports, or some aspect of one’s everyday environment, where a fundamental motivating factor is pleasure gained through the activity. Instead of contemplation and perception of an object, practice highlights the intrinsic aesthetic relevance of action, doing and making. The approach offers new perspectives on the scope of “aesthetics”.

As a key concept, aesthetic practice foregrounds structural features of our aesthetic life that have previously gained less attention, such as temporality, continuity, multimodality and intersubjectivity. A practice is ongoing, and characterised by tempi and rhythms, times, and places. It is interwoven with the practitioner’s life, while at the same time constituting another space. It is typically shared with other people; inspired by others; or communicated to them.

Finally, aesthetic practices tend to become intimately interwoven, even inseparable from practitioners’ identity, and affect their outlook on life. Continuously engaging with one or several of the arts, popular culture, one’s home environment, or nature, can constitute a tacit or explicit exploration of and reflection on values, the world, and one’s own position in it, in a dynamic balance of receptivity and creativity which is intrinsically valuable.

We welcome proposals on:

 The concept of aesthetic practice; critical assessments

 Everyday aesthetic practices and arts: boundaries and overlappings

 Habits and practices

 Practice and style

 Rhythms of practice

 Everyday rituals as aesthetic practice

 Intersubjectivity in aesthetic practices

 The aesthetic dimension of everyday practices

 The aesthetic dimension of labour and work

 Childhood aesthetic practices

 Aesthetic communicative practices

 Social aesthetics

 Care aesthetics

 Arts as aesthetic practices

 Aesthetic practices in fandom and popular culture

 Playing games as aesthetic practice

 The role of technologies in aesthetic practices

 Shared practices in internet communities and social media

– And more

In addition to contributions from philosophical aesthetics, we welcome proposals from neighbouring fields, the arts, psychology, cultural studies, game studies, sociology, history, media and communication studies, etc., as long as they address phenomena from a perspective of aesthetic practice.

We invite abstracts of 200–300 words. Deadline for abstracts is 15th March 2024.

Link to the main site.